Paris-Nice in danger

The UCI reportedly sent a message to the managers of the ProTour teams at the Tour of Qatar which suggested that the 'Race to the Sun' - the Paris-Nice stage race - be removed from the ProTour calendar if the ASO did not comply with the rules.

Earlier this year the ASO - who are the organisers of the Paris-Nice as well as the Tour de France - refused to invite all 20 Pro teams to compete in the race choosing to include the Professional Continental team Agritubel instead of new team Unibet.com.

"It's a problem between them [Unibet.com] and the UCI, not between us and them," ASO president Patrice Clerc (pictured) told Cyclingnews.

The riders have taken the side of the UCI arguing that organisers should respect UCI and urging the UCI to take "all adequate measures in order to for all UCI ProTour teams to participate in all races on the 2007 UCI ProTour calendar".

"The Rider's Council wishes to stress that it is totally unacceptable for riders that participation to their races be unilaterally determined by organisers," said a statement realeased by the Association of Professional Cyclists.

"Riders and teams, but definitely also organisers, will have to respect the UCI rules and these rules can only be changed by a democratic procedure as foreseen in the UCI statutes, and certainly not in a one-sided manner by one of the parties."